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authorPaul <Paul@Pauls-MacBook-Air.local>2014-12-15 19:03:58 -0500
committerPaul <Paul@Pauls-MacBook-Air.local>2014-12-15 19:03:58 -0500
commitcd1b1e9058966592eb80971d8e00fee9333e1c31 (patch)
tree400e0ce2306bce246f6ece80eea1d16ef73f238a /project2
parentdd13f5b0d7afd397b5207a4b5994c8e61ed97163 (diff)
downloadecon2099-cd1b1e9058966592eb80971d8e00fee9333e1c31.tar.gz
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Diffstat (limited to 'project2')
-rw-r--r--project2/main.tex11
1 files changed, 6 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/project2/main.tex b/project2/main.tex
index 96a1d6b..8b29b5b 100644
--- a/project2/main.tex
+++ b/project2/main.tex
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
-\section{Introduction}
+\section{Introduction to the Problem}
\blfootnote{We are deeply grateful to Jason Hartline who provided the original idea for this project.}We consider the problem of selling $m$ heterogeneous items to a single agent
with additive utility. The type $t$ of the agent is drawn from a distribution
@@ -105,10 +105,6 @@ Problem~\ref{eq:opt}:
which expresses the assumption that the ex-ante allocation rule is upper-bounded by
$\hat{x}$.
-To provide some more intuition about this, we assume that the buyer is charged a price $p_0$ to participate in the mechanism,
-and then is offered a menu of goods with prices $p_1,...,p_m$. The buyer's utility over the goods is additive, as above. However, there is an ex-ante constraint of being allocated a given good $i$, given by $\hat{x}_i$. For each good, if the buyer is allocated the good, which he is with probability $x_i \leq \hat{x}_i$, then he pays $p_i$; otherwise, he pays nothing. This is essentially the concept of a two-part tariff, as discussed in \cite{armstrong}.
-
-
We use the notation from \cite{alaei} where $R(\hat{x})$ denotes the revenue obtained by the optimal mechanism
solution to Problem~\ref{eq:opt} with ex-ante allocation constraint $\hat{x}$.
\eqref{eq:ea}.
@@ -117,6 +113,7 @@ solution to Problem~\ref{eq:opt} with ex-ante allocation constraint $\hat{x}$.
there a simple mechanism whose ex-ante allocation rule is upper-bounded by
$\hat{x}$ and whose revenue is a constant approximation to $R(\hat{x})$?}
+\section{Importance of the Problem and Possible Approach}
\paragraph{} One reason why one might want to consider this problem is that it
can be used as a building block for more general mechanisms. Indeed, in
\cite{alaei}, Alaei shows that under fairly general assumptions, given an
@@ -126,6 +123,10 @@ for the multi-agent problem which is a $\gamma\cdot\alpha$ approximation to the
revenue-optimal mechanism where $\gamma$ is a constant which is at least
$\frac{1}{2}$.
+
+To provide some more intuition about this, we assume that the buyer is charged a price $p_0$ to participate in the mechanism,
+and then is offered a menu of goods with prices $p_1,...,p_m$. The buyer's utility over the goods is additive, as above. However, there is an ex-ante constraint of being allocated a given good $i$, given by $\hat{x}_i$. For each good, if the buyer is allocated the good, which he is with probability $x_i \leq \hat{x}_i$, then he pays $p_i$; otherwise, he pays nothing. This is essentially the concept of a two-part tariff, as discussed in \cite{armstrong}.
+
It is interesting to consider two specific cases for which we already have an
answer to our problem:
\begin{itemize}